378 



Sheep-Breeding Records. 



Deherain (without, however, giving the reference), that in a 

 certain year, the summer having been rainy with a low tern- 

 perature, the ripening of the grain was retarded, and the analysis 

 showed 12*6 per cent, of protein and 77*2 per cent, of starch 

 from the wheat grown on the experimental farm at Grignon.. 

 In the following season, when July was hot and dry, the wheat 

 ripened three weeks earlier, and contained 1 5 "3 per cent, of 

 protein and only 6ro, per cent, of starch. In this case, however,, 

 the quantity of protein per acre was about the same in the 

 two harvests, but the percentage was greater because the quan- 

 tity of starch was very much less than that produced in the first 

 season. The rapid desiccation of the plant in the hot weather 

 had arrested the elaboration of the starch. 



Sheep-Breeding Records. 



Bulletin No. 95 of the Agricultural Experiment Station of 

 Wisconsin University contains some interesting observations on 

 sheep breeding, based on the records of the flocks at the Station,, 

 in which the Shropshire, Dorset, Southdown, Merino, cross-bred 

 Shropshire-Merino, and Oxford breeds are represented. 



The records appear to indicate that for such animals, and 

 under the conditions prevailing at the Station, the normal period 

 of gestation ranges from 144 to 1 50 days after the date of service, 

 and that more ewes will lamb 146 days after service than at any 

 other time. There appears to be no appreciable difference in 

 the period of gestation for male and female offspring in sheep, 

 but quick maturing breeds seem to carry their young for a 

 shorter period than those breeds requiring more time to mature. 

 The records also show that large lambs are, on the average, 

 carried in utero for an appreciably longer period than, small or 

 medium lambs, and that lambs dropped before the 144th and 

 after the 149th day of pregnancy are lacking in strength and 

 vitality at birth. It was observed that Shropshire ewes were 

 more prolific than any of the other breeds, except the fourth 



